My Exciting Friday Night

Seriously, you guys, try not to be be jealous, but last night was just about the most exciting night you could ever imagine. I’m still recovering, and it’s 4pm the following day! It’s days like this you should be thankful that I’m a blogger, because I’m about to take you step-by-step through it. It’s the sort of evening that some day, when I’m old and sitting in my rocker/hovercraft, I’ll reflect on, and a smile will spread across my face, and the robots that I’ve hired to take care of me will whirr and click, because they’re sentient, and they’ll know exactly what I’m thinking about.

That, my folks, was sarcasm.

After leaving the office, I headed to work out. All day long I was thinking that after work, I should go running, since it’s been two weeks since I’ve last run (which was with my friend Chris in Porn Star Park), but when I got into my car, the thought of running just didn’t excite me. It requires thinking and planning, and those were two things I didn’t want to do. I know, I know, running doesn’t exactly require the same brainpower as rocket science or Ikea furniture assembly, but I try to go running in new places, and hadn’t given a lick of thought to where I’d run, what the route would be, where I’d park, and how I’d challenge and motivate myself to finish. Instead, I decided to head to the gym, and work out on two machines that I haven’t touched in a few weeks: my dreaded frenemy, the StairMaster, and my favorite cardio machine, the Arc Trainer.

I started on the StairMaster, set the timer for 12 minutes, and after a minute of warm-up, did the remaining 11 minutes going two steps at a time (except for about 30 seconds towards the end, when I was really pushing myself and struggling to keep up). I did a minute to cool-down, and the total result was 230 calories burned and 66 floors. Y’all know I love to equate my StairMaster accomplishments to buildings around the world, so last night was like me climbing the 900 North Michigan building in Chicago:

I’m familiar with this building – my sister, a long-time Chicago resident and renowned architect, has an office a few blocks down Michigan avenue, and my brother and his family used to live quite literally three blocks away. 900 North Michigan is a fancy-schmancy building – it’s home to the Four Seasons hotel, and there’s a mall in it, too, that has a Bloomingdale’s, and a bunch of other fancy shops like Gucci and Michael Kors.

After the StairMaster, I climbed aboard the Arc Trainer for 35 minutes, and burned an additional 700 calories while watching Law & Order on TNT.

With my workout complete, I drank about a liter of water, changed out of my sweat-drenched clothes, drank another 1/2 liter of water, and headed to the mall. It was right around the corner, and there’s a Bed Bath & Beyond there, and I’ve been meaning to go to a Bed Bath & Beyond. A few weeks ago, I blogged about how I wanted to replace my RediSetGo, since the teflon was starting to peel off and the timer was broken (I also toyed with the idea of replacing it with a Big Boss Grill, but that was a passing fancy). Well, I thought I distinctly remembered seeing RediSetGos (or is it RediSetGoes?) available at Bed Bath & Beyond. Of course they’re available online and over the phone, but I thought it’d be easier to just pick one up and have it, instead of ordering it and having to wait for it to arrive.

I had my 20% off coupon in my hand (which was given to me by my new friend Rochelle, as I had used up all my Bed Bath & Beyond coupons buying SodaStream supplies) as I walked into the store, but alas, my memory deceived me. They don’t carry them, and the associate I spoke with didn’t recall ever selling them. Foiled!

I wandered into the mall. The Burbank Town Center isn’t the best mall in the world, especially in the Los Angeles area, where there are malls all over the place. No, I take that back – The Burbank Town Center is a great mall, if you’re looking for certain things, like:

PIANO KEY SILK TIES - $30 at Flamingo…

SKULL AND SWORD-BASED HOME DECOR – $70 (!!!) at Elements of Earth…

SHARK WINE BOTTLE HOLDERS - on sale for $11 at Art Impressions. Because when I think of wine, I think of sharks.

Seriously, the Burbank Town Center is where SkyMall products must go to die. And there’s also a Coach store, for your fancy purse needs.

Then I saw this place, which I think must be relatively new:

An AS SEEN ON TV store? They’re bound to have RediSetGos! A whole mountain of them!

NOPE. Sold out. “Are you going to be getting more?” I asked the girl behind the counter. “Yes, but we have no idea when,” was the reply. Apparently RediSetGos are like iPads! Gosh, do you think there’s been a surge of interest in RediSetGos because of this very blog? That’s probably it. Yep, I’ll take the blame for RediSetGos being sold out! You’re welcome, Burbank!

I didn’t leave the mall empty-handed, though – I picked up a pair of flip-flops (or, as we used to call them when I was a kid, thongs) and a t-shirt at Old Navy. Total coast for both: $9.33 cents.

And I’m starting to think that the store where I saw RediSetGos available for sale might have actually been Kohl’s.

My evening ended at home, where it got really outrageously crazy and wild: I did laundry, and watched Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on my TiVo. I want to go on that show so bad I can’t even stand it. I’m good at trivia, I think Meredith Vieira is a great host and I love when, every once in a while, she unleashes this flirty little laugh with the guy contestants that you never ever hear on the Today show. Here’s a fun fact about me: I’ve been on game shows before – two of them. One of these days I’ll post the videos for one of them, so you can watch me in action – before I share the other one, I have to get it transferred from VHS into a format I can upload.

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7 Responses to My Exciting Friday Night

I love your posts David, they are so funny and you are a great writer! Glad to hear you are feeling better after that “off” day you had. If it makes you feel any better, I have had several off days in a row now of not eating right. I know I have gained back 4 lbs of the 10 lbs I lost. We are all in this together, and I am glad you posted what you did because we have all been through that. I am having a pretty hard time right now with depression and getting on the right meds, and unfortunately I have let food become my medicine. So I am here to tell you, Great Job! Keep it up! You are an inspiration!

Interesting… Lately I too have been dealing with some depression (related to pregnancy and hormone changes) and feeling emotionally awful. But I very much enjoyed your humorous spin on a blah day… very encouraging! Thanks for making the most of it, David!

I wish you could be my personal trainer! (Living near Seattle doesn’t help)!
My sister in-law is one, lives in LA too!
Check out Kendall Evolution..Tina is fantastic and always up to a good work-out!
Tina Kendall, located at kendallevolution@gmail.com
You won’t be disappointed! KIUD!

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In A Nutshell

A big hello to everyone that's discovering Keep It Up, David for the first time! I'm glad you're here.

My name is David. I live in Los Angeles, and I'm 35 years old. In January 2010, I began eating better and exercising more, so I could lose weight. So far, so good - I've lost and kept off 160 pounds! But it's a tough road, and I need to keeping finding new ways to keep motivated and on-track. I'll blog about my progress and share my struggles and successes. Join me on my journey!